Model and Method for Computing Performance Bounds in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

1. A method of modeling wireless interference among wireless links between a plurality of wireless nodes in a wireless network, the method comprising: accepting connectivity information for the network; identifying wireless links between nodes of the network from the connectivity information; and creating a graph from the connectivity information, wherein each identified wireless link is represented as a vertex in the graph, and wherein an edge is created between a first vertex and a second vertex in the graph if a first wireless link represented by the first vertex and a second wireless link represented by the second vertex interfere with one another.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graph is a conflict graph, and wherein the act of accepting connectivity information further comprises accepting a connectivity graph.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: assigning to the edge a weight of zero (0) if the links are not in conflict with each other; and assigning to the edge a weight of one (1) if the links are in conflict with each other.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each node is equipped with exactly one radio.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each node is equipped with a plurality of radios.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein all nodes communicate on exactly one wireless channel.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each node may communicate on a plurality of wireless channels.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein each node is equipped with exactly one omni-directional antenna.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein each node is equipped with a plurality of directional antennae.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein each node is equipped with a plurality of omni-directional antennae.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein all wireless links have equal capacities.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless links may have different capacities.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein a receiving node must be free of interference for a transmission to be successful.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein a sending node must be free of interference for a transmission to be successful.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising making routing decisions based on the created edges and vertices.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising making network infrastructure decisions based on the created edges and vertices.

17. A computer-readable storage medium containing computer-executable instructions for modeling wireless interference among wireless links between a plurality of wireless nodes in a wireless network, the computer-executable instructions performing steps comprising: accepting connectivity information for the network; identifying wireless links between nodes of the network from the connectivity information; and creating a graph from the connectivity information, wherein each identified wireless link is represented as a vertex in the graph, and wherein an edge is created in the graph between a first vertex and a second vertex if a first wireless link represented by the first vertex and a second wireless link represented by the second vertex interfere with one another.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein determining that the first link interferes with the second link further comprises determining that the first link interferes with the second link by determining that the distance between the first and fourth nodes is less than or equal to a communication range of the first node.

19. A method of modeling wireless interference among wireless links between a plurality of wireless nodes in a wireless network, the method comprising: accepting connectivity information for the network; identifying wireless links between nodes of the network from the connectivity information; and creating a graph from the connectivity information, wherein each identified wireless link is represented as a vertex in the graph, and wherein an edge is created in the graph between a first vertex, representing a first link in which a first node transmits to a second node, and a second vertex, representing a second link in which a third node transmits to fourth node, if the distance between the first and fourth nodes is less than or equal to a communication range of the first node.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising making routing decisions based on the created edges and vertices.